Re: "moaning like a pyard"? SEE: News Article

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: : : : I'm looking for the meaning/origin of a phrase that was used in my childhood by my mother (now 72 years old), who originally was from Kent, England. The phrase: "moaning like a pyard" (not sure of exact spelling). It was used by her to describe someone complaining continually about something, often unjustifiably. I'd be grateful for any help. I used it in a training session this morning, and was challenged agressively by a client, who accused me of using language whose meaning I did not know. It would be very satisfying to be able to tell him the origins of the phrase! Thanks, and I'll hope for a response.

: : : Looks like, but I am not sure, that the phrase is from a family name:

: : : What does the Pyatt name mean?

: : : English (Midlands): nickname from a diminutive of Old French pye 'magpie' (see Pye 1), or possibly sometimes a late form of pyard, a pejorative form of pye.

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: : : English: from Middle English, Old French pie, pye 'magpie' (Latin pica), applied as a nickname for a talkative or thievish person. The modern English name of the bird, not found before the 17th century, is from the earlier dialect term maggot-pie, formed by the addition of Mag, Maggot, pet forms of the female personal name Margaret.
: : : Welsh: variant of Pugh.

: : Well, not to put too fine a point on it, it appears that your client's challenge may have been appropriate because you are coming to this site to find the answer. In any event, I did find some odd references to the word (in additon to that posted by Bruce K) that referred to '...the hair of a Pyard dog...' Have no idea what it meant and could not find such a breed of dog.

: I found the following in a Google search using a different spelling: pyeard. The Google caption on the results screen says: ... egg chips and grilled tomatoes Im pretty sure the steak was cammel but then again it could have been Pyeard I think thats what they used to call the wild dogs. ... This makes some sense relative to "moaning like a pyard" in that it could mean "moaning like a pyeard (wild dog)".

: The site is: www.armynews.co.uk/forum/displaytopic.asp

: But when I go there I can't search for the topic without creating a user login and ID which I don't want to do. Perhaps you can try to login and do a search or find for Pyeard.